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Is this another indicator that we have reached the end of the digital beginning?

In his annual digital marketing and ecommerce trends post at the start of the year Econsultancy CEO Ashley Friedlein referenced a quote from the PWC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report that described how we are at the “end of the digital beginning as companies reshape and retool for life in the new normal”.

This incorporated four distinct structural archetypes (dispersed resource, centre of excellence, hub and spoke, multiple hub and spoke) and a model for the most common of these archetypes: the centre of excellence.

Our new research into this area confirmed the continuing validity of these models, but there were some notable areas of change that relating to the growing emphasis placed on certain functions and the balances in the mix of resourcing approaches.

In particular, there were four key trends illustrating how we may indeed have reached the end of the digital beginning.

The desire for greater integration and potential devolvement of expertise

Since the first iteration of this research in 2011 there has been a notable shift in emphasis in the priority given to digital training for both traditional marketers and other staff in non-digital roles.

Companies, it seems, are making far greater efforts to up-skill non-digital roles, perhaps showing that they have finally recognised the benefits this brings in terms of integration.

Hub as strategy, spoke as execution

Aligned with the greater desire to broaden digital knowledge beyond the digital team, many interviewees in the new research reported that they were making efforts to devolve more executional expertise and capability to local divisions or departments.

In this scenario, the centre remains focused on building organisational capability, big picture strategy, governance, standards, best practice and support.

A trend toward taking some key functions in-house

The research revealed a notable trend toward more capability being developed in-house in some particular vertical specialisms including SEO, analytics, social, email, and mobile.

As the importance of owned and earned media grows, it’s becoming clear that many digital marketing organisations want to maintain closer control over capabilities that relate to these areas.

Moving on from effectiveness – a trend towards efficiency

Many companies spoken to in the research were focused on leveraging existing assets and resources rather than increasing headcount, and had also moved from focusing on making marketing activity more effective (improved campaign results), to making it more efficient (achieving better results with the same resource, greater impact to the bottom line).

Whilst this may well be reflective of tougher economic times, it’s also likely to be illustrative of greater maturity in the use and combination of many digital channels

It seems that whilst the fundamental structural models have remained broadly similar, there have been some significant changes within that that show not only the growing importance of digital marketing to organisations, but growing maturity in its resourcing and practice.

One of the outcomes of the consumer move towards ecommerce and digital technologies is that traditional ‘big box’ retailers have had to adapt in order to survive.

Many businesses that once relied on giant retail warehouses have needed to downsize their physical properties and move towards an omnichannel retail model that integrates digital and offline sales channels.

To find out more about B&Q’s strategy I spoke to director of omnichannel Michael Durbridge, who will also be speaking at Econsultancy’s JUMP event on October 9.

In a recent breakfast briefing on digital transformation we discussed staff retention, which remains one of the very biggest issues faced by modern businesses, and is a particular problem within digital teams.

People choose to leave companies for all sorts of reasons. Compensation and career progression concerns are typically at top of the list of reasons to bail out, but there are plenty of underlying issues that affect job satisfaction.

Sometimes the smallest things can have a disproportionate impact on how people feel about where they work. These minor beefs can push people over the edge if left unchecked.

We propose that to be a modern marketer you must be comfortable and adept at procuring and using technology to its best advantage. We believe modern marketers will have increasing ownership of technology.

But it isn’t just about the technology solutions or platforms. It is becoming increasingly important that marketers, and certainly digital marketers, have a good grasp of technology fundamentals to be most effective in their jobs.

Having a better technology understanding allows us to understand the ‘art of the possible’ and give us ideas, it helps us work more productively with colleagues in technology teams.

According to a newly-published study published by Pew, nearly three-quarters of Facebook users polled said they didn’t know that Facebook generates and stores data about their interests and traits, and, when they came to learn this, over half indicated that they were uncomfortable with Facebook’s practice.

Mastercard, the third-largest credit card processor in the US, has announced a new policy that will make it more difficult for some businesses to automatically convert free trials into recurring subscriptions.